Published July 22, 2025 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Leiolepis belliana

  • 1. Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
  • 2. Thailand Natural History Museum, Pathum Thani, Thailand
  • 3. Rabbit in the Moon Foundation (RIM), Suanphueng, Thailand

Description

Leiolepis belliana (Hardwicke and Gray, 1827)

Common butterfly lizard.

Distribution

This species has a specialised habitat consisting of coastal sandy or scrub areas with loose sandy soil. Twenty-five individuals were detected in only two of the thirteen human disturbed forest transects along the coast in rocky, sandy areas. Though this lizard was detected in human disturbed forest areas, it is worth noting that they were detected very near National Park boundaries and are likely in National Park forest as well.

Notes

This species (Fig. 4) is a medium-sized, diurnal burrowing agamid lizard (Lei et al. 2021). This species is one of five in the genus considered sexual (as opposed to parthenogenetic) (Malysheva et al. 2006). Diet consists of a variety of insects and other invertebrates. Notable characteristics of this species include a flattened body, short limbs and distinctive fringed scales laterally between fore-limb and hind-limb (dorsal lateral) (Grismer et al. 2014). Sexually active males display bright colours including alternating orange and black along the fringe with yellow lateral stripes and dotted markings throughout the dorsum (Hartmann et al. 2012).

Notes

Published as part of Cook-Price, Dawn R., Makchai, Sunchai, Naithani, Archana, Pawangkhanant, Parinya & Suwanwaree, Pongthep, 2025, Lizard survey of Ko Pha-gnan in the Surat Thani Province, Thailand, pp. e 154712 in Biodiversity Data Journal 13 on page e154712, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.13.e154712

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Linked records

Additional details

References

  • Lei Juan, Binti Yusof Nur Syuhaida, Wu Nicholas C., Zhang Zhengwang, Booth David T. 2021 The burrowing ecology of a tropical lizard (Leiolepis belliana) Herpetologica 77 1 37 44 10.1655/0018-0831-77.1.37
  • Malysheva D. N., Darevsky I. S., Tokarskaya O. N., Petrosyan V. G., Martirosyan I. A., Ryskov A. P. 2006 Analysis of genetic variation in unisexual and bisexual lizard species of the genus Leiolepis from Southeast Asia Russian Journal of Genetics 42 5 463 467 10.1134/s1022795406050012
  • Grismer Jesse L., Bauer Aaron M., Grismer L. Lee, Thirakhupt Kumthorn, Aowphol Anchelee, Oaks Jamie R., Wood Perry L., Onn Chan Kin, Thy Neang, Cota Micheal, Jackman Todd 2014 Multiple origins of parthenogenesis, and a revised species phylogeny for the Southeast Asian butterfly lizards, Leiolepis Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 113 4 1080 1093 10.1111/bij.12367
  • Hartmann T., Sothanin S., Handschuh M., Böhme W 2012 The taxonomic status of the red-banded butterfly lizard, Leiolepis rubritaeniata Mertens, 1961, with distributional and natural history notes Russian Journal of Herpetology 19 2 108 114